Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 9, 1993 TAG: 9304090294
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GAIL SHISTER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`CBS THIS MORNING' STILL GETS NO RESPECT
Funny, Harry Smith doesn't look like Rodney Dangerfield.But he sure sounds like him when asked to explain why the resurgent "CBS This Morning" - up 23 percent in the just-released quarterly Nielsens - gets almost zero press coverage compared with NBC's zippy "Today" and ABC's top-rated "Good Morning America."
"I don't have a clue. I'm at least as perky and sexy as ("Today" co-anchor) Katie Couric, and I think I'm getting as much hair as ("GMA's") Charlie Gibson. The last time my hair grew was when I was 11," deadpans Smith, "This Morning's" co-anchor since its 1987 inception.
When it comes to mornings, CBS could use a few laughs.
After "This Morning" was dumped by heavyweight affiliates in Detroit and Atlanta last summer, the network almost pulled the plug on the low-rated, money-losing show. Since then, however, Smith, co-anchor Paula Zahn & Co. have been on a Nielsen roll.
Though still in the Dawn Patrol basement, "This Morning" scored a 3.2 rating from January to March, up 23 percent from the same period in '92. "GMA," up 12 percent, had a 4.8. "Today," up 7 percent, had a 4.4. (Each rating point equals 931,000 homes.)
"We're coming out of a hole we dug ourselves into," says Smith, 41. "We made lots of whimsical anchor changes. We wandered around, using zillions of contributors. Now, as goofy as it sounds, we're better at Smith doing the show. Our motto, `Breakfast for your head,' means something."
Smith's tenure is the longest for any CBS morning host since the network broke into the a.m. business in 1954. No. 2 on that list is Diane Sawyer, whose four-year-plus stint ended in January '85 when she joined ABC to launch "PrimeTime Live."
When Smith left the correspondents' ranks to take over "CBS This Morning," "I thought I'd do it for a couple of years, then be back out in the field someplace, quite honestly. The reality of the show's history made me think I wouldn't be around too long."
That was then. These days, "we're a contender," says "This Morning" boss Ted Savaglio, 43. "We have momentum. `Today's' run at `GMA' has stalled. We're in a position to continue growing."
"Today's" dominance in the press-attention department "doesn't make me crazy," Savaglio says. "I recognize that Katie Couric and the show's return from the ashes was a good story. We weren't selling the same scenario. When the dust cleared, we're up and they're up. Everybody's up."
Says Smith, an Illinois native, "All of that ceased bothering me long ago. It's my Midwest Zen."
It was a thriller, but the NCAA final fell flat in Monday's national Nielsens.
North Carolina's 77-71 win over Michigan - led by the Tar Heels' Donald Williams - averaged a 22.2 rating and 34 percent audience share from 9:15 to 11:19 p.m. That's down 2 percent in rating from last year's final, a Duke win over Michigan.
Nielsen estimates that 32.9 million fans caught the game. Not surprisingly, the largest segment was 18-to-49-year-old men - 11.5 million of them, to be exact.
\ Short stuff: New Jersey Network alum Rolonda Watts, most recently co-host of Lifetime's "Attitudes" (R.I.P.), has joined the syndicated "Inside Edition" as senior correspondent. Watts replaces "Evening Magazine" grad Nancy Glass, whose King World spinoff, "American Journal," launches in the fall.
Jake Haselkorn, formerly Tokyo bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor's now-defunct cable newscast, "World Monitor," has been named head of ABC's Beijing bureau. Haselkorn, who worked for ABC News from 1968 to '86, replaces Todd Carrel. Carrel's on disability leave after being beaten by Beijing police last June while covering the second anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising. In addition, Deborah Wang, formerly a Hong Kong-based Asia correspondent for National Public Radio, joins the bureau as a correspondent.
NBC and Time Life Television will co-produce and broadcast a 10-hour series of specials, "Time Life's Lost Civilization," NBC Entertainment boss" Warren Littlefield said Tuesday. NBC, which will air the shows in the '95-96 season, will also participate in the video distribution. Production on the $12 million project begins immediately.